Sabin de Gouvion

Sabin Michel de Gouvion (27 September 1787-29 January 1814) was a Brigadier-General of the French Army who commanded a brigade of dragoons and Chevau-Legers Lancers. He was killed in the Battle of Bar-le-Duc during the Napoleonic Wars.

Biography
Sabin de Gouvion was born in Montlucon in central France on 27 September 1787. Gouvion was enlisted into the French army in the levee en masse in 1805 at the age of 18, and he joined a regiment of Dragoons. Gouvion served under Marshal Joachim Murat in Alsace-Lorraine and the campaign in Germany during the Napoleonic Wars. Gouvion fought in the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805.

Gouvion was promoted to colonel in 1812 before the Russian Campaign and fought at Borodino in 1812, where his regiment of dragoons distinguished themselves in the capture of the Bagration fleches. Gouvion led dragoons again in the Sixth Coalition campaign of 1813-1814 that immediately succeeded the retreat from Moscow by Emperor Napoleon's army, and Gouvion commanded his regiment in the defense of eastern France from the Allied armies.

He was promoted to become the Colonel of a cavalry brigade consisting of Chevau-Legers Lancers and his regiment of dragoons, and during the Battle of Bar-le-Duc on 29 January 1814 he charged Swedish troops that threatened the French left flank. Gouvion then encountered square formations formed by the Swedish troops, and Gouvion was mortally wounded by a bayonet stab to the chest. His brigade took heavy losses in the battle.